Feuding, small town gossip, relationship troubles, festivals, and friendship are all part of Carolyn Brown’s first foray into women’s fiction. And folks, she hit it out of the ballpark. I wasn’t but a few pages in that I was delighted by the characters and town with their separate stories that come together in the end.
The story introduces for friends: Marty, Cathy, Trixie, and Darla Jean along with a quirky bunch of friends, enemies, and neighbors from the small Texas town of Cadillac. Marty and Cathy are identical twins with very different personalities. Marty likes it live wild and free and Cathy wants a husband, home, and family. The twins turned their family home and their mother’s home-cooking recipes particularly her secret special hot jalapeno peppers into a restaurant. When their childhood friend, Trixie learns her husband cheated on her, she becomes the third partner in Miss Clawdy’s restaurant. Darla Jean is a madam turned preacher living across the way.
The story opens with Marty, because of a death-bed promise to her mama, making a controversial vote to induct the woman who Trixie’s ex cheated with into the Blue-Ribbon Jalepeno Society instead of her best friend Trixie or her great-aunt Agnes. Meanwhile, Cathy is being pressured by her fiance, Ethan, and his bossy interfering mother, Violet to conform to Violet’s dictates for their wedding and future life together all to promote Ethan’s political chances. Why is she more interested in the hot erotic romance on her e-reader than a night spent with Ethan? And on nights when Marty and Cathy are out of the house, Trixie is sneaking in her ex to help scratch her itch.
Things change when Agnes observes a man up in Trixie’s room, word trickles out that Marty voted against her friend and aunt, and Cathy is presented with a pre-nup pushing her to leave behind her share in the restaurant. Open hostilities break out between Violtet and Agnes and lesser between other members of the town right before the big Jalapeno festival. The friends have each other’s backs through thick and thin.
I had an absolutely uproariously good time with this light, yet heartwarming story. The friendship was the best part, but the antics of those two old ladies cracked me up. I loved watching the friends grow past issues and mistakes and see some of the troublemakers get their comeuppance.
I did a re-read in the audio format and enjoyed Petrea Buchard’s narration work for all the characters. She has a husky low voice that gave a flexibility for male and female, old and young voices of the characters.
I can’t wait to see what comes next for the residents of Cadillac, TX. Those who enjoy humorous and light contemporary romance along with lighter women’s fiction set in small town ranch country should give this one a go.